Step by step on my home-made vape

Ok, well this won't be the best step by step ever, cuz it's already put together, but I'll do my best.

First, let's see what the vape is made of:


1. You will need two jars. Try to keep the jar sizes small, so the vape will empty pretty quick. The first one must be glass with a metal top.

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The second one can even be plastic, cuz it has water in it so it will stay cool. Using a small plastic bottle instead of a glass jar will save you some work. You won't have to drill glass. If you don't have a glass drill bit it'll sve you some money too. Although having a glass drill bit is really nice, you can make bongs out of like anything lol.

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BTW, if I were making this vape over, I'd choose a jar that is a little shorter and a little wider cuz it bubbles up a lot, but this is good too.


2. You will need a test-tube or similar tube. Well, I stole this from chem-lab. If you can't find a glass tube somewhere, I think a brass tube from home-depot should do the job too. But try to go for glass. Glass is a better insulator than metals, and I think glass looks cooler here.

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Here's a bottom view too

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3. You will need a small tea-filtering thing. Break the filters of of the handle, and you have two screens you can put the weed between.

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4. You will need a soldering iron. I bought mine at home depot. I recommend this same soldering iron because it has a wide heating element and can also be easily attached to the test-tube in the perfect position.

Weller 40 Watt Soldering Kit, here's a link
Weller 40 Watt Soldering Kit - SP40LK at The Home Depot

5. You will also need a dimmer switch. You can buy these at ace hardware. The smallest I could find was a 600W. It works, but it's pretty big. If you find one that is less watts and smaller, go with that.

here's a link for the one I bought.
Ace - Ace Rotary Dial Dimmer

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BTW, instead of a dial you can buy a complete thermostat from digikey.com. Digikey has a 2200 page catalog lol. High tech companies order their stuff from here.

They have a thermostat that is tiny. Like 1mm thick and 3mm long or so, and will maintain a temperature range of 193C-213C. THC evaporates at 185C, so it's good.

I have ordered some of them. The thermostat itself is like 99cents. But be prepared to pay $5 hadling and $7 shipping too.

6. Some plastic tubing. I found this at home, but I'm pretty sure you can buy it at home-depot

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7. Brass tubing to connect the two jars. Don't get copper cuz copper fumes are poisonous.

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8. A plastic screen. Just for safety. I wanted to make it see-through cuz my vape is so beautiful!. This is I think from the cap of a "Bites of Brownies" for Trader Joes. Those bites of brownies are soooooo amazing. You have one and you'll want to eat the entire box right away.

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9. You will also need something you can put everything into. I could've gone with aluminum or plastic to save myself a lot of work, but yeah I chose this steel one to make it look amazing.

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Now I'll get to the tools I used. When I started this project I had no idea how I was gonna do it, I just started doing it and figured the best tools out on the way.

1. Drill bits. Yes, drilling glass and steel is harder than drilling wood and plastic. If you choose a plastic housing and plastic bottle instead of the second jar you will do fine without these.

The left one is a really good steel drill bit. Your drill bit may say metal drill bit, bit don't trust it. Those "metal" drill bits drill tend to wrikle and tear up the hole you make. Look for a drill bit with a tip like the one on this pic. It will drill easily through steel and make a very clean hole.

The drill bit on the right side is a glass drill bit. It's good for making bongs too. :D

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2. A good tool.

I used this cuz this is what I found at home. I don't think you absolutely need a tool like this cuz the bits can be installed onto a normall drill too.

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These disks were priceless. They cut brass, steel, and glass too. They were amazing.

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I used this thing for fine-tuning my cuts into the steel. I don't know what it's called.

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3. A good clamp. Very important, you don't want to drill into your hand if something slips.

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4. Safety glasses. Use them whenever you are drilling glass or metal, better safe than sorry.

5. Epoxy glue, my favorite glue, glues everything and holds like a motherfucker.

Everything in my vape is glued together with epoxy. The 5 minutes means you have to use it in 5 minutes after you mix the components. It will take about an hour for it to hold, and about 4 hours for it to fully harden.

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So let's get to putting it all together.

STEP 1. Drill, and cut everything to make em fit

STEP 2. Glue it all together

STEP 3. Vape

This is pretty much how I did it.

Ok, so I'll explain some parts in detail.




Well the dimmer switch didn't really fit cuz of the curve of the housing. What you do is put it in the clap. Take you tool with the disk and take of the case of the dimmer switch off. Cut a little off of the case. Bend the metal part it is on. Glue it back together and then it'll fit.



Cutting the test tube to size. Put the test tube into the clamp. Take your disk and cut about halfway through the glass all around it. In the second run cut all the way through the glass. After you're done cutting, use some sandpaper and get rid of any sharp edges.



Drilling into the second glass jar: Put your jar into water. Use a glass drill bit. Work under water. Go very slow. Don't put to much pressure on it, cuz you might break the jar. It will take you about 10 minutes to get the hole you want.



The soldering iron:
NEVER use a soldering iron that has touched solder. Lead is extremely poisonous.
It should be pretty easy to take it apart. Just a couple of screws. Take it all apart, even the wiring, you'll have to rewire anyways. If you buy the one I bought you'll also find a really cool orange light inside that you can build into the vape.

You will want to take the disk tool and cut the end so you'll have something that will attach to the glass. I cut 3 "legs" onto the end of mine. Don't cut the wire by accident, it would cause you a lot of extra work. When you are glue the tip of the soldering iron into the test tube, you can use toothpick wedged between glass and the tip of the soldering iron to make sure the epoxy hardenes and the tip will stay in the perfect position.



Brass tubing inside: I put this in last because I had to change my plans at a point. I think it was a mistake, because it would've been much easier to put it in as you are glueing the jars in. And you could have them sticking out a bit instead of being entirely invisible from the outside.
But it doesn't really matter. It took like 20 seconds to cut the brass tubes with the disc.
I stuck a bunch of toothpick trough the top into the hole and the brass tube to make sure the tube and the hole are perfectly aligned while I glued.



Wiring: Everything is wired in series. If you add a the light, wire that paralell to everything else though.

Now let's get to vaping it.

I think these five pics are prett self explanatory:

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then add a little water

Turn the dial. Wait about 30 seconds for it to heat up and enjoy.

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Thread is open now.

I thought you could edit. If a moderator reads this please delete those first two lines from this thread.

What is the big metal base thing?

so.. id rather go buy one then go buy all those tools.. BUT good job at being creative...:thumbsup:

The bottom is a small cooking pot.

Yeah, I have a lot of tools at home. If you use a plastic housing and a plastic second bottle, you won't need most of these.

ha ive got one jus like that but mine was bought on ebay came with an in car power adapter to.
pretty good lil devices works very well

Fuckin Macgyver!